3 Common Google Penalties & How to Recover From Them

Traffic to your website is steadily rising, along with sales. Rankings are also on the rise for your target keywords. But the next day traffic takes a sudden nosedive and your site is nowhere to be seen in the search […]

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3 Common Google Penalties & How to Recover From Them

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Written by Emily Reiffer,

The post 3 Common Google Penalties & How to Recover From Them appeared first on Search Engine People Blog.

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5 Simple Ways to Shape Your Content Through Your Culture

Author: Josh Ritchie

Many content marketers think they’re doing content right. They brainstorm. They monitor upcoming events. They plan their editorial calendar based on things like:

• New product releases and updates
• Holidays
• Company news
• Current events
• Trends
• Conferences

They stick to their calendar and publish regularly. Yet their content fails.

It’s not surprising. When you’re too focused on just filling the content pipeline, becoming a slave to your editorial calendar, it’s easy to lose sight of what you should be creating.

What Is Good Content?

Good, effective content connects. It speaks directly to your audience and provides something that they want or need. Yet so much content meets readers at a superficial level; most of it lacks heart and emotional connection. It’s the equivalent of talking about the weather.

If you want to form relationships with your audience and convince them to invest in your brand,  which you do, you need to connect through truly meaningful content that tells a worthwhile story.

How do you know what’s worthwhile? The strongest stories include two key traits:

1. They’re interesting: Most industries are becoming commoditized and more competitive, which makes it harder for brands to stand out. To break through, you need a strong, distinct voice. Telling unusual, unique, or intriguing stories helps you do this. That means diving past the surface, identifying interesting topics, teasing out unique angles, and turning them into compelling stories to capture your audience’s attention.
2. They’re useful: The quickest way to make your audience fall in love with your brand is to provide content that applies to their lives. (This type of content is also innately interesting to them.) To do this, you can focus on content that helps them solve a problem, learn something new, or do something better. Think education (blog posts, webinars, ebooks, etc.) or inspiration (customer or employee stories, etc.).

So you know what makes a compelling story, but where do you find those stories in your own operation? This is where things can get murky for marketers, but don’t get overwhelmed. You have the single greatest source of inspiration right in front of you, all around you, even in your instant messages.

It’s your company culture.

Why Culture Makes for Good Content

Content marketing is a long-term process to turn strangers into supporters of your brand. The first step of this process is introducing yourself—showing your audience who you are, how you see the world, and why anyone should care about any of this. Conveniently, these are the very same elements that comprise your company culture.

When you approach content from this angle, your stories inherently capture your unique and authentic perspective. This hits both marks for generating great stories:

• They’re interesting because they’re unique; no other company has your mission, vision, values, people, origin story, failures, and successes.  
• They’re useful because they stem from your personal experiences. If you’ve experienced something or solved a problem firsthand, your audience is more likely to trust your advice.

When you peel back the curtain, you’re more vulnerable—and that’s the key to developing a deep, emotional connection with your audience.

But what does that look like in action? Here are 5 ways to turn your culture into incredible content:

1. Share Your Vision, Mission, and Values

If you don’t have these principles articulated for your company, you absolutely should. Sharing your company’s purpose through your vision, mission, and values helps your internal team understand why they’re working, what they’re doing, and how they’re supposed to be doing it. (This also helps create a cohesive culture.)

Additionally, showcasing your principles externally shows your audience who you are and what you stand for. Audiences crave connections with brands that share their same values. For some prospects, your principles could be the key factor in their decision-making.

Creating content around your principles doesn’t mean you publish your mission statement. It means you mine those values for inspiration. What do you care about? What inspires you? What’s been on your mind? How might you create content to move the needle on those issues?

This type of thinking has helped my company come up with many content ideas. For example, one of our values is “be good to each other.” This value also inspired us to create our People for Periods  project, an interactive microsite to educate and help destigmatize menstruation in honor of Women’s Health Week.

On another occasion, after we read the story of how Ben Franklin once refused a loan repayment and directed the debtor to “pay it forward,” we became so inspired by the “pay it forward” philosophy that we turned the entire tale into a high-quality print, which ultimately became our holiday gift to our partners. (It was a much more meaningful gift than a branded coffee mug.)

This type of content is a simple way to put your beliefs out into the world and into your audience’s hands.

2. Highlight Your People

Your company is (or should be) full of great people. Celebrate them—and give them a platform. Your audience wants to put a face to your brand, and this is a great way to do it.

This can be as easy as creating a page that spotlights them or showcasing their work. It can be more involved, too. You might encourage your employees to write blog posts (even if they aren’t on the content team) about their experience or create content around a volunteer event that your company sponsors.

For instance, our Director of Strategy recently wrote a well-received article about battling—and beating—creative struggles called “The 15 Most Important Lessons I’ve Learned in Creative Work.” When one of our designers began to take calligraphy classes after work, we tapped her to hand-letter inspirational quotes for our Instagram account. And when our New York team helped YMCA kids create a chalk mural, we created a video recap.

If employees aren’t comfortable writing or producing content themselves, they can still brainstorm ideas, offer their perspectives, and help you identify angles your audience would find valuable.

Here are some other ways to highlight your employees:

• Showcase their innovations, awards, etc.
• Interview them (perhaps film them in their work environment)
• Give them shout-outs on social media

3. Tell Your Origin Story

Find creative ways to showcase how your company started and how it’s evolved over time.

I find myself telling my company’s origin story most frequently during sales meetings, and I’m still pleasantly surprised by how interested people are in knowing this stuff. Why do people care? Because this is the stuff that is specific to each company, and stories of humble beginnings are always interesting, inspiring, and endearing.

Recently, my team has even started to help our partners tell their stories, too. We publish interviews with clients about how they built their companies, what they learned, and what advice they’d give to those facing similar issues.

Any time you share your experience—including your struggles, failures, and growth—you cultivate stronger relationships.

4. Publish Your Failures

Everyone fumbles and fails their way through at least the early days of launching a brand. Even if you’re a 10-year business veteran, you will face challenges.

Sharing stories about how you’ve failed and what you learned humanizes your brand, makes you more relatable, and demonstrates that you are invested in learning and trying to improve—for yourself and your customers.   

Most importantly, it provides your readers with something of value—the opportunity to learn from your mistakes.

At our agency, I’ve written about the toughest lessons I’ve learned about building a content strategy. And we had our entire team share the best content marketing lessons they’ve learned. 

You may feel shy or strange at first talking about how you’ve absolutely botched something, but as long as you frame it in terms of what you’ve learned, you have nothing to lose.

5. Publish Your Successes

Hopefully, you don’t just have failures in your brand’s story. Just as you share your losses, you should share your wins—not in an arrogant way, but in a confident way. (Your audience appreciates your advice from failures, but they definitely want to know how to win.)

To ensure you stay humble, when you share your wins, think of ways to frame it in terms of why you won or succeeded. Doing so enables people to “stand on your shoulders.”

For example, when our agency created a viral video for Microsoft, we let our audience know about the success. But we presented it as a behind-the-scenes blog where we shared the strategic thinking that went into the project, how we vetted the idea, and why we think it worked.

If you help others around you succeed, you succeed.

Remember: Go Deeper

When you use your content as a conduit to express your culture, you can market your company as a unique entity versus a transactional, lowest-cost provider, which is the best advantage available. This alone should inspire you to grab your team and a pizza to start hashing out your ideas.

Using this tactic doesn’t mean you have to abandon your entire content strategy. You can build your editorial mix around high-value, high-interest ideas first, then plug in company news, new product updates and releases, etc. to maintain your publishing schedule.

No matter what you create, always focus on leading with value for your audience first.

Are you already incorporating culture into your content marketing strategy? I’d love to hear about its impact in the comments below.

---

5 Simple Ways to Shape Your Content Through Your Culture was posted at Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership. | http://blog.marketo.com

The post 5 Simple Ways to Shape Your Content Through Your Culture appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

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5 Simple Ways to Shape Your Content Through Your Culture

Author: Josh Ritchie

Many content marketers think they’re doing content right. They brainstorm. They monitor upcoming events. They plan their editorial calendar based on things like:

• New product releases and updates
• Holidays
• Company news
• Current events
• Trends
• Conferences

They stick to their calendar and publish regularly. Yet their content fails.

It’s not surprising. When you’re too focused on just filling the content pipeline, becoming a slave to your editorial calendar, it’s easy to lose sight of what you should be creating.

What Is Good Content?

Good, effective content connects. It speaks directly to your audience and provides something that they want or need. Yet so much content meets readers at a superficial level; most of it lacks heart and emotional connection. It’s the equivalent of talking about the weather.

If you want to form relationships with your audience and convince them to invest in your brand,  which you do, you need to connect through truly meaningful content that tells a worthwhile story.

How do you know what’s worthwhile? The strongest stories include two key traits:

1. They’re interesting: Most industries are becoming commoditized and more competitive, which makes it harder for brands to stand out. To break through, you need a strong, distinct voice. Telling unusual, unique, or intriguing stories helps you do this. That means diving past the surface, identifying interesting topics, teasing out unique angles, and turning them into compelling stories to capture your audience’s attention.
2. They’re useful: The quickest way to make your audience fall in love with your brand is to provide content that applies to their lives. (This type of content is also innately interesting to them.) To do this, you can focus on content that helps them solve a problem, learn something new, or do something better. Think education (blog posts, webinars, ebooks, etc.) or inspiration (customer or employee stories, etc.).

So you know what makes a compelling story, but where do you find those stories in your own operation? This is where things can get murky for marketers, but don’t get overwhelmed. You have the single greatest source of inspiration right in front of you, all around you, even in your instant messages.

It’s your company culture.

Why Culture Makes for Good Content

Content marketing is a long-term process to turn strangers into supporters of your brand. The first step of this process is introducing yourself—showing your audience who you are, how you see the world, and why anyone should care about any of this. Conveniently, these are the very same elements that comprise your company culture.

When you approach content from this angle, your stories inherently capture your unique and authentic perspective. This hits both marks for generating great stories:

• They’re interesting because they’re unique; no other company has your mission, vision, values, people, origin story, failures, and successes.  
• They’re useful because they stem from your personal experiences. If you’ve experienced something or solved a problem firsthand, your audience is more likely to trust your advice.

When you peel back the curtain, you’re more vulnerable—and that’s the key to developing a deep, emotional connection with your audience.

But what does that look like in action? Here are 5 ways to turn your culture into incredible content:

1. Share Your Vision, Mission, and Values

If you don’t have these principles articulated for your company, you absolutely should. Sharing your company’s purpose through your vision, mission, and values helps your internal team understand why they’re working, what they’re doing, and how they’re supposed to be doing it. (This also helps create a cohesive culture.)

Additionally, showcasing your principles externally shows your audience who you are and what you stand for. Audiences crave connections with brands that share their same values. For some prospects, your principles could be the key factor in their decision-making.

Creating content around your principles doesn’t mean you publish your mission statement. It means you mine those values for inspiration. What do you care about? What inspires you? What’s been on your mind? How might you create content to move the needle on those issues?

This type of thinking has helped my company come up with many content ideas. For example, one of our values is “be good to each other.” This value also inspired us to create our People for Periods  project, an interactive microsite to educate and help destigmatize menstruation in honor of Women’s Health Week.

On another occasion, after we read the story of how Ben Franklin once refused a loan repayment and directed the debtor to “pay it forward,” we became so inspired by the “pay it forward” philosophy that we turned the entire tale into a high-quality print, which ultimately became our holiday gift to our partners. (It was a much more meaningful gift than a branded coffee mug.)

This type of content is a simple way to put your beliefs out into the world and into your audience’s hands.

2. Highlight Your People

Your company is (or should be) full of great people. Celebrate them—and give them a platform. Your audience wants to put a face to your brand, and this is a great way to do it.

This can be as easy as creating a page that spotlights them or showcasing their work. It can be more involved, too. You might encourage your employees to write blog posts (even if they aren’t on the content team) about their experience or create content around a volunteer event that your company sponsors.

For instance, our Director of Strategy recently wrote a well-received article about battling—and beating—creative struggles called “The 15 Most Important Lessons I’ve Learned in Creative Work.” When one of our designers began to take calligraphy classes after work, we tapped her to hand-letter inspirational quotes for our Instagram account. And when our New York team helped YMCA kids create a chalk mural, we created a video recap.

If employees aren’t comfortable writing or producing content themselves, they can still brainstorm ideas, offer their perspectives, and help you identify angles your audience would find valuable.

Here are some other ways to highlight your employees:

• Showcase their innovations, awards, etc.
• Interview them (perhaps film them in their work environment)
• Give them shout-outs on social media

3. Tell Your Origin Story

Find creative ways to showcase how your company started and how it’s evolved over time.

I find myself telling my company’s origin story most frequently during sales meetings, and I’m still pleasantly surprised by how interested people are in knowing this stuff. Why do people care? Because this is the stuff that is specific to each company, and stories of humble beginnings are always interesting, inspiring, and endearing.

Recently, my team has even started to help our partners tell their stories, too. We publish interviews with clients about how they built their companies, what they learned, and what advice they’d give to those facing similar issues.

Any time you share your experience—including your struggles, failures, and growth—you cultivate stronger relationships.

4. Publish Your Failures

Everyone fumbles and fails their way through at least the early days of launching a brand. Even if you’re a 10-year business veteran, you will face challenges.

Sharing stories about how you’ve failed and what you learned humanizes your brand, makes you more relatable, and demonstrates that you are invested in learning and trying to improve—for yourself and your customers.   

Most importantly, it provides your readers with something of value—the opportunity to learn from your mistakes.

At our agency, I’ve written about the toughest lessons I’ve learned about building a content strategy. And we had our entire team share the best content marketing lessons they’ve learned. 

You may feel shy or strange at first talking about how you’ve absolutely botched something, but as long as you frame it in terms of what you’ve learned, you have nothing to lose.

5. Publish Your Successes

Hopefully, you don’t just have failures in your brand’s story. Just as you share your losses, you should share your wins—not in an arrogant way, but in a confident way. (Your audience appreciates your advice from failures, but they definitely want to know how to win.)

To ensure you stay humble, when you share your wins, think of ways to frame it in terms of why you won or succeeded. Doing so enables people to “stand on your shoulders.”

For example, when our agency created a viral video for Microsoft, we let our audience know about the success. But we presented it as a behind-the-scenes blog where we shared the strategic thinking that went into the project, how we vetted the idea, and why we think it worked.

If you help others around you succeed, you succeed.

Remember: Go Deeper

When you use your content as a conduit to express your culture, you can market your company as a unique entity versus a transactional, lowest-cost provider, which is the best advantage available. This alone should inspire you to grab your team and a pizza to start hashing out your ideas.

Using this tactic doesn’t mean you have to abandon your entire content strategy. You can build your editorial mix around high-value, high-interest ideas first, then plug in company news, new product updates and releases, etc. to maintain your publishing schedule.

No matter what you create, always focus on leading with value for your audience first.

Are you already incorporating culture into your content marketing strategy? I’d love to hear about its impact in the comments below.

---

5 Simple Ways to Shape Your Content Through Your Culture was posted at Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership. | http://blog.marketo.com

The post 5 Simple Ways to Shape Your Content Through Your Culture appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

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6 Highly Effective Ways to Collect Leads Via Your Blog

This is a guest contribution from Larry Alton.

In the early days of blogging, there were lots of small niche blogs that resembled online journals or diaries. They were nothing more than virtual spaces for storing thoughts, beliefs, and memories. However, as the internet evolved, so did blogging. Hobby bloggers disappeared for the most part and a new wave of bloggers began to shape what has now become a billion-dollar industry.

Instead of blogging simply to have some fun or blow off steam, blogging is what people and businesses do to generate revenue – both directly and indirectly. To use a business term, blogging has become a key source for lead generation. That begs the question, are you maximizing your blog’s lead collection efforts?

Identifying Your Blog’s Purpose and Audience

Before you can maximize your blog’s lead collection efforts, you have to begin by clearly identifying and understanding the two cornerstones that are foundational to each and every blog.

• The first thing you have to figure out is your blog’s purpose. Is your blog designed to collect email leads or are you trying to convert direct sales straight from the blog? Are you merely building a brand or are you hoping to drive traffic to specific landing pages? Are you hoping to generate ad revenue or are you focusing on affiliate marketing? Each purpose necessitates a unique approach and you must identify the goal you’re trying to reach.

• The second foundational cornerstone of a successful blog is target audience identification. You need to know exactly who you’re targeting with your content and what makes them tick. Demographic information is a start but it goes well beyond this. You need to understand what their pain points are, what they’re looking for in a solution, how they shop, and what points of friction exist.

Once you successfully identify a purpose and an audience, you’ll find that you suddenly have much more clarity surrounding your blog. This clarity will ultimately enhance your ability to generate leads.

Give These Six Techniques a Try

Too many bloggers try to jump into lead generation without first tending to the aforementioned cornerstones. Be sure that you deal with your blog’s purpose and audience before focusing on leads. But once you get those elements squared away, you can turn your attention towards developing a lead generation strategy that ultimately yields a significant return.

1. Provide a Reason to Believe 

By now, most bloggers have some sort of opt-in form built into their blogs. You’ve been told over and over just how important it is to collect email leads for future marketing and sales pushes. And while it’s good that you’ve done the legwork and integrated opt-in forms into your web pages, are you doing enough to encourage subscriptions.

Reducing the number of fields is one thing you can do, but there’s always more. Another good strategy is to create some sort of incentive or reason to believe. People are much more likely to give you their email address and other personal information if they know they’re getting something tangible in return.

Spend some time brainstorming ideas with your team. What will it take to move blog visitors to action? Depending on your target audience and your blog’s goals, this could range from simple to complex. Here are the three popular ideas: 

• Free trial. The simplest incentive is a free trial offer. This usually works best for service or subscription based businesses. Not only does the free trial offer increase your ability to collect leads, but it also naturally pushes those leads further along in the conversion process by giving them a taste of your product.

• A discount is slightly easier but has the same effect. Discounts usually help you collect and drive leads in one fell swoop. Not only are you getting their information, but you’re also incentivizing them to make a purchase. 

• Free physical gift. The most effective incentive you can present to visitors is a free physical gift in return for an opt-in. The key here is to give a gift that’s cheap, easy to ship, and points the recipient back towards the brand. Something like a custom calendar with your brand’s logo is a good choice. If you buy in bulk, many companies will sell you calendars for just a couple of dollars per unit.

• Free eBook or eCourse. People love to feel like they’re getting exclusive information that will allow them to improve and grow. That’s why so many users are willing to opt in to an email list in return for a complimentary eBook or eCourse that teaches them something of value. It’s a highly effective – not to mention cheap – method of attracting leads. 

Feel free to think even further outside of the box, but if you can find an incentive that fits into one of these three categories, you should see a noticeable bump in your lead collection efforts.

2. Make Use of Sidebar Real Estate 

The sidebar is one of the most underutilized areas of the blog. Either the sidebar is overcrowded with superfluous elements or isn’t used much at all. Both extremes are egregious mistakes and you need to make sure you put this valuable real estate to use.

When it comes to generating leads, the sidebar is a gift. Whereas your header and footer are only visible on certain portions of the page, the sidebar is ever present. Not only should you include a concise opt-in form in the sidebar, but you should also incorporate some value-adds that keep the reader engaged. Depending on your objective, this may look like featuring similar posts, incorporating related affiliate links, or throwing in a unique sales offer. 

3. Host a Webinar 

Today’s internet users want to see more engagement. Consuming a post is great, but engaging with the voice behind that post is even better. One way to collect leads and drive value is by hosting occasional webinars.

“Simply collect visitor contact information in exchange for a reserved spot,” marketing strategist Andy Beohar says. “Webinars can be used to go over a particular topic your audience has a problem with, demonstrate a new product or service, or just to start a discussion.”

While hosting a webinar obviously allows you to garner leads in the days and weeks leading up to the event, it goes far beyond collecting an email address and plugging it into a spreadsheet.

“A huge benefit of a hosting a webinar is the feedback,” Beohar has discovered. “Beforehand, you should ask your audience what topics they’d like to see discussed. During and after the webinar you should also invite as many questions as possible. These questions give you a feel for what your audience really cares about, and should give you plenty of ideas for content to blog about in the future.”

4. Use Social Influencers

You’re certainly sharing blog posts on social media, but how big is your reach? Even if you have a few hundred or thousand followers on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, you face an uphill battle when it comes to gaining significant traction. What you really need to do is tap into larger networks by connecting with social influencers in your niche.

Groove, a leader in help desk software, has come up with a method that they believe offers the most promising results. You start by identifying influencers in your industry and making a list of people you want to build relationships with. Next, you start engaging them by liking content, commenting on posts, sharing posts, etc. The goal is to get noticed without being annoying. Finally, once you’ve built up some credibility, you need to send them an offer they can’t resist.

“We’ve gotten more than 5,000 subscribers and 535 trial signups through our blog efforts [using this method],” says Alex Turnbull, CEO and founder of Groove. “From a revenue standpoint (since that’s what this blog is all about), we’ve generated about $3,425 in transactional revenue, though the real test of how valuable these new users are over time remains to be seen.”

5. Get Involved in the Comments Section

The comments section of a blog doesn’t usually get the attention it deserves. Sure, you may get a few comments and even reply to some of them, but it’s time that you stop looking at it as an afterthought. By engaging readers in the comments section, you can really drive some impressive results. Just check out what leading blogs are doing to get an idea of what can and should be done.

While you want to avoid being too “salesy” in the comments section, you can generate leads by answering questions with specific calls-to-action. In other words, if someone is having a problem and you have an eBook, webinar, white paper, or case study that speaks to the issue, direct them to the appropriate landing page with an opt-in form.

6. Use Exit Intent Popups

You’ve certainly experienced them at least once or twice in the past. Exit intent popups are the screens that suddenly emerge when you’re getting ready to close out a page or go to another tab on your browser. While these popups can be a little annoying, they tend to work.

“Your visitors are already on their way out, they have signaled their intent to leave and their attention is quickly being focused elsewhere,” marketer Sid Bharath says. “Your options are to do nothing, and perhaps never be able to count them as a returning visitor, or take your best shot, display a popup, and try to convince them you are worthy of their time.”

It may be a last ditch effort, but it’s never too late to collect a lead. Use exit intent popups and track the results. If they seem to be working, then continue to leverage them as part of your lead generation strategy.

Maximize Your Blog’s Value

Well-designed blogs with regularly updated content and robust SEO and backlink strategies are a dime a dozen these days. If you want to be competitive and accomplish your goals, then you have to be proactive and really hone in on some of the different ways in which you can drive leads directly from your blog. It’ll take some time and effort, but you’ll be better off for the resources you pour into it.

Larry Alton is an independent business consultant specializing in social media trends, business, and entrepreneurship. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn

The post 6 Highly Effective Ways to Collect Leads Via Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

      

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6 Highly Effective Ways to Collect Leads Via Your Blog

This is a guest contribution from Larry Alton.

In the early days of blogging, there were lots of small niche blogs that resembled online journals or diaries. They were nothing more than virtual spaces for storing thoughts, beliefs, and memories. However, as the internet evolved, so did blogging. Hobby bloggers disappeared for the most part and a new wave of bloggers began to shape what has now become a billion-dollar industry.

Instead of blogging simply to have some fun or blow off steam, blogging is what people and businesses do to generate revenue – both directly and indirectly. To use a business term, blogging has become a key source for lead generation. That begs the question, are you maximizing your blog’s lead collection efforts?

Identifying Your Blog’s Purpose and Audience

Before you can maximize your blog’s lead collection efforts, you have to begin by clearly identifying and understanding the two cornerstones that are foundational to each and every blog.

• The first thing you have to figure out is your blog’s purpose. Is your blog designed to collect email leads or are you trying to convert direct sales straight from the blog? Are you merely building a brand or are you hoping to drive traffic to specific landing pages? Are you hoping to generate ad revenue or are you focusing on affiliate marketing? Each purpose necessitates a unique approach and you must identify the goal you’re trying to reach.

• The second foundational cornerstone of a successful blog is target audience identification. You need to know exactly who you’re targeting with your content and what makes them tick. Demographic information is a start but it goes well beyond this. You need to understand what their pain points are, what they’re looking for in a solution, how they shop, and what points of friction exist.

Once you successfully identify a purpose and an audience, you’ll find that you suddenly have much more clarity surrounding your blog. This clarity will ultimately enhance your ability to generate leads.

Give These Six Techniques a Try

Too many bloggers try to jump into lead generation without first tending to the aforementioned cornerstones. Be sure that you deal with your blog’s purpose and audience before focusing on leads. But once you get those elements squared away, you can turn your attention towards developing a lead generation strategy that ultimately yields a significant return.

1. Provide a Reason to Believe 

By now, most bloggers have some sort of opt-in form built into their blogs. You’ve been told over and over just how important it is to collect email leads for future marketing and sales pushes. And while it’s good that you’ve done the legwork and integrated opt-in forms into your web pages, are you doing enough to encourage subscriptions.

Reducing the number of fields is one thing you can do, but there’s always more. Another good strategy is to create some sort of incentive or reason to believe. People are much more likely to give you their email address and other personal information if they know they’re getting something tangible in return.

Spend some time brainstorming ideas with your team. What will it take to move blog visitors to action? Depending on your target audience and your blog’s goals, this could range from simple to complex. Here are the three popular ideas: 

• Free trial. The simplest incentive is a free trial offer. This usually works best for service or subscription based businesses. Not only does the free trial offer increase your ability to collect leads, but it also naturally pushes those leads further along in the conversion process by giving them a taste of your product.

• A discount is slightly easier but has the same effect. Discounts usually help you collect and drive leads in one fell swoop. Not only are you getting their information, but you’re also incentivizing them to make a purchase. 

• Free physical gift. The most effective incentive you can present to visitors is a free physical gift in return for an opt-in. The key here is to give a gift that’s cheap, easy to ship, and points the recipient back towards the brand. Something like a custom calendar with your brand’s logo is a good choice. If you buy in bulk, many companies will sell you calendars for just a couple of dollars per unit.

• Free eBook or eCourse. People love to feel like they’re getting exclusive information that will allow them to improve and grow. That’s why so many users are willing to opt in to an email list in return for a complimentary eBook or eCourse that teaches them something of value. It’s a highly effective – not to mention cheap – method of attracting leads. 

Feel free to think even further outside of the box, but if you can find an incentive that fits into one of these three categories, you should see a noticeable bump in your lead collection efforts.

2. Make Use of Sidebar Real Estate 

The sidebar is one of the most underutilized areas of the blog. Either the sidebar is overcrowded with superfluous elements or isn’t used much at all. Both extremes are egregious mistakes and you need to make sure you put this valuable real estate to use.

When it comes to generating leads, the sidebar is a gift. Whereas your header and footer are only visible on certain portions of the page, the sidebar is ever present. Not only should you include a concise opt-in form in the sidebar, but you should also incorporate some value-adds that keep the reader engaged. Depending on your objective, this may look like featuring similar posts, incorporating related affiliate links, or throwing in a unique sales offer. 

3. Host a Webinar 

Today’s internet users want to see more engagement. Consuming a post is great, but engaging with the voice behind that post is even better. One way to collect leads and drive value is by hosting occasional webinars.

“Simply collect visitor contact information in exchange for a reserved spot,” marketing strategist Andy Beohar says. “Webinars can be used to go over a particular topic your audience has a problem with, demonstrate a new product or service, or just to start a discussion.”

While hosting a webinar obviously allows you to garner leads in the days and weeks leading up to the event, it goes far beyond collecting an email address and plugging it into a spreadsheet.

“A huge benefit of a hosting a webinar is the feedback,” Beohar has discovered. “Beforehand, you should ask your audience what topics they’d like to see discussed. During and after the webinar you should also invite as many questions as possible. These questions give you a feel for what your audience really cares about, and should give you plenty of ideas for content to blog about in the future.”

4. Use Social Influencers

You’re certainly sharing blog posts on social media, but how big is your reach? Even if you have a few hundred or thousand followers on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, you face an uphill battle when it comes to gaining significant traction. What you really need to do is tap into larger networks by connecting with social influencers in your niche.

Groove, a leader in help desk software, has come up with a method that they believe offers the most promising results. You start by identifying influencers in your industry and making a list of people you want to build relationships with. Next, you start engaging them by liking content, commenting on posts, sharing posts, etc. The goal is to get noticed without being annoying. Finally, once you’ve built up some credibility, you need to send them an offer they can’t resist.

“We’ve gotten more than 5,000 subscribers and 535 trial signups through our blog efforts [using this method],” says Alex Turnbull, CEO and founder of Groove. “From a revenue standpoint (since that’s what this blog is all about), we’ve generated about $3,425 in transactional revenue, though the real test of how valuable these new users are over time remains to be seen.”

5. Get Involved in the Comments Section

The comments section of a blog doesn’t usually get the attention it deserves. Sure, you may get a few comments and even reply to some of them, but it’s time that you stop looking at it as an afterthought. By engaging readers in the comments section, you can really drive some impressive results. Just check out what leading blogs are doing to get an idea of what can and should be done.

While you want to avoid being too “salesy” in the comments section, you can generate leads by answering questions with specific calls-to-action. In other words, if someone is having a problem and you have an eBook, webinar, white paper, or case study that speaks to the issue, direct them to the appropriate landing page with an opt-in form.

6. Use Exit Intent Popups

You’ve certainly experienced them at least once or twice in the past. Exit intent popups are the screens that suddenly emerge when you’re getting ready to close out a page or go to another tab on your browser. While these popups can be a little annoying, they tend to work.

“Your visitors are already on their way out, they have signaled their intent to leave and their attention is quickly being focused elsewhere,” marketer Sid Bharath says. “Your options are to do nothing, and perhaps never be able to count them as a returning visitor, or take your best shot, display a popup, and try to convince them you are worthy of their time.”

It may be a last ditch effort, but it’s never too late to collect a lead. Use exit intent popups and track the results. If they seem to be working, then continue to leverage them as part of your lead generation strategy.

Maximize Your Blog’s Value

Well-designed blogs with regularly updated content and robust SEO and backlink strategies are a dime a dozen these days. If you want to be competitive and accomplish your goals, then you have to be proactive and really hone in on some of the different ways in which you can drive leads directly from your blog. It’ll take some time and effort, but you’ll be better off for the resources you pour into it.

Larry Alton is an independent business consultant specializing in social media trends, business, and entrepreneurship. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn

The post 6 Highly Effective Ways to Collect Leads Via Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

      

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6 Highly Effective Ways to Collect Leads Via Your Blog

This is a guest contribution from Larry Alton.

In the early days of blogging, there were lots of small niche blogs that resembled online journals or diaries. They were nothing more than virtual spaces for storing thoughts, beliefs, and memories. However, as the internet evolved, so did blogging. Hobby bloggers disappeared for the most part and a new wave of bloggers began to shape what has now become a billion-dollar industry.

Instead of blogging simply to have some fun or blow off steam, blogging is what people and businesses do to generate revenue – both directly and indirectly. To use a business term, blogging has become a key source for lead generation. That begs the question, are you maximizing your blog’s lead collection efforts?

Identifying Your Blog’s Purpose and Audience

Before you can maximize your blog’s lead collection efforts, you have to begin by clearly identifying and understanding the two cornerstones that are foundational to each and every blog.

• The first thing you have to figure out is your blog’s purpose. Is your blog designed to collect email leads or are you trying to convert direct sales straight from the blog? Are you merely building a brand or are you hoping to drive traffic to specific landing pages? Are you hoping to generate ad revenue or are you focusing on affiliate marketing? Each purpose necessitates a unique approach and you must identify the goal you’re trying to reach.

• The second foundational cornerstone of a successful blog is target audience identification. You need to know exactly who you’re targeting with your content and what makes them tick. Demographic information is a start but it goes well beyond this. You need to understand what their pain points are, what they’re looking for in a solution, how they shop, and what points of friction exist.

Once you successfully identify a purpose and an audience, you’ll find that you suddenly have much more clarity surrounding your blog. This clarity will ultimately enhance your ability to generate leads.

Give These Six Techniques a Try

Too many bloggers try to jump into lead generation without first tending to the aforementioned cornerstones. Be sure that you deal with your blog’s purpose and audience before focusing on leads. But once you get those elements squared away, you can turn your attention towards developing a lead generation strategy that ultimately yields a significant return.

1. Provide a Reason to Believe 

By now, most bloggers have some sort of opt-in form built into their blogs. You’ve been told over and over just how important it is to collect email leads for future marketing and sales pushes. And while it’s good that you’ve done the legwork and integrated opt-in forms into your web pages, are you doing enough to encourage subscriptions.

Reducing the number of fields is one thing you can do, but there’s always more. Another good strategy is to create some sort of incentive or reason to believe. People are much more likely to give you their email address and other personal information if they know they’re getting something tangible in return.

Spend some time brainstorming ideas with your team. What will it take to move blog visitors to action? Depending on your target audience and your blog’s goals, this could range from simple to complex. Here are the three popular ideas: 

• Free trial. The simplest incentive is a free trial offer. This usually works best for service or subscription based businesses. Not only does the free trial offer increase your ability to collect leads, but it also naturally pushes those leads further along in the conversion process by giving them a taste of your product.

• A discount is slightly easier but has the same effect. Discounts usually help you collect and drive leads in one fell swoop. Not only are you getting their information, but you’re also incentivizing them to make a purchase. 

• Free physical gift. The most effective incentive you can present to visitors is a free physical gift in return for an opt-in. The key here is to give a gift that’s cheap, easy to ship, and points the recipient back towards the brand. Something like a custom calendar with your brand’s logo is a good choice. If you buy in bulk, many companies will sell you calendars for just a couple of dollars per unit.

• Free eBook or eCourse. People love to feel like they’re getting exclusive information that will allow them to improve and grow. That’s why so many users are willing to opt in to an email list in return for a complimentary eBook or eCourse that teaches them something of value. It’s a highly effective – not to mention cheap – method of attracting leads. 

Feel free to think even further outside of the box, but if you can find an incentive that fits into one of these three categories, you should see a noticeable bump in your lead collection efforts.

2. Make Use of Sidebar Real Estate 

The sidebar is one of the most underutilized areas of the blog. Either the sidebar is overcrowded with superfluous elements or isn’t used much at all. Both extremes are egregious mistakes and you need to make sure you put this valuable real estate to use.

When it comes to generating leads, the sidebar is a gift. Whereas your header and footer are only visible on certain portions of the page, the sidebar is ever present. Not only should you include a concise opt-in form in the sidebar, but you should also incorporate some value-adds that keep the reader engaged. Depending on your objective, this may look like featuring similar posts, incorporating related affiliate links, or throwing in a unique sales offer. 

3. Host a Webinar 

Today’s internet users want to see more engagement. Consuming a post is great, but engaging with the voice behind that post is even better. One way to collect leads and drive value is by hosting occasional webinars.

“Simply collect visitor contact information in exchange for a reserved spot,” marketing strategist Andy Beohar says. “Webinars can be used to go over a particular topic your audience has a problem with, demonstrate a new product or service, or just to start a discussion.”

While hosting a webinar obviously allows you to garner leads in the days and weeks leading up to the event, it goes far beyond collecting an email address and plugging it into a spreadsheet.

“A huge benefit of a hosting a webinar is the feedback,” Beohar has discovered. “Beforehand, you should ask your audience what topics they’d like to see discussed. During and after the webinar you should also invite as many questions as possible. These questions give you a feel for what your audience really cares about, and should give you plenty of ideas for content to blog about in the future.”

4. Use Social Influencers

You’re certainly sharing blog posts on social media, but how big is your reach? Even if you have a few hundred or thousand followers on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, you face an uphill battle when it comes to gaining significant traction. What you really need to do is tap into larger networks by connecting with social influencers in your niche.

Groove, a leader in help desk software, has come up with a method that they believe offers the most promising results. You start by identifying influencers in your industry and making a list of people you want to build relationships with. Next, you start engaging them by liking content, commenting on posts, sharing posts, etc. The goal is to get noticed without being annoying. Finally, once you’ve built up some credibility, you need to send them an offer they can’t resist.

“We’ve gotten more than 5,000 subscribers and 535 trial signups through our blog efforts [using this method],” says Alex Turnbull, CEO and founder of Groove. “From a revenue standpoint (since that’s what this blog is all about), we’ve generated about $3,425 in transactional revenue, though the real test of how valuable these new users are over time remains to be seen.”

5. Get Involved in the Comments Section

The comments section of a blog doesn’t usually get the attention it deserves. Sure, you may get a few comments and even reply to some of them, but it’s time that you stop looking at it as an afterthought. By engaging readers in the comments section, you can really drive some impressive results. Just check out what leading blogs are doing to get an idea of what can and should be done.

While you want to avoid being too “salesy” in the comments section, you can generate leads by answering questions with specific calls-to-action. In other words, if someone is having a problem and you have an eBook, webinar, white paper, or case study that speaks to the issue, direct them to the appropriate landing page with an opt-in form.

6. Use Exit Intent Popups

You’ve certainly experienced them at least once or twice in the past. Exit intent popups are the screens that suddenly emerge when you’re getting ready to close out a page or go to another tab on your browser. While these popups can be a little annoying, they tend to work.

“Your visitors are already on their way out, they have signaled their intent to leave and their attention is quickly being focused elsewhere,” marketer Sid Bharath says. “Your options are to do nothing, and perhaps never be able to count them as a returning visitor, or take your best shot, display a popup, and try to convince them you are worthy of their time.”

It may be a last ditch effort, but it’s never too late to collect a lead. Use exit intent popups and track the results. If they seem to be working, then continue to leverage them as part of your lead generation strategy.

Maximize Your Blog’s Value

Well-designed blogs with regularly updated content and robust SEO and backlink strategies are a dime a dozen these days. If you want to be competitive and accomplish your goals, then you have to be proactive and really hone in on some of the different ways in which you can drive leads directly from your blog. It’ll take some time and effort, but you’ll be better off for the resources you pour into it.

Larry Alton is an independent business consultant specializing in social media trends, business, and entrepreneurship. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn

The post 6 Highly Effective Ways to Collect Leads Via Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

      

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